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First Haitian Cardinal, Chibly Langlois, named by Pope Francis

VATICAN CITY, Italy (sentinel.ht) - 55 year old Chibly Langlois, the Bishop of Les Cayes became the first Haitian Cardinal when he was named by Pope Francis on Sunday.

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01.13.2014: Declaration by new Cardinal Langlois. Vision 2000

VATICAN CITY, Italy (sentinel.ht) - 55 year old Chibly Langlois, the Bishop of Les Cayes became the first Haitian Cardinal when he was named by Pope Francis on Sunday.

Observers say this move is inline with the pope's belief that the Catholic church must pay more attention to the poor. The Argentinian pope also chose three other cardinals from Latin America: Orani Joao Tempesta, Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro; Leopoldo Jose Brenes Solorzano, Archbishop of Managua, Nicaragua and Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, Archbishop of Santiago del Chile, Chile.

Francis read out the 19 names as he spoke from his studio window to a crowd of tens of thousands of well-wishes and curious in St. Peter's Square.

Sixteen of the appointees are younger than 80, meaning they would be currently eligible to elect the next pope, which is a cardinal's most important task, after the Feb. 22 ceremony to formally install them.

Since his election in March as the first pontiff from Latin America, the pope has broken tradition after tradition in terms of protocol and style at the Vatican. But in Sunday's list, Francis stuck to the church's rule of having no more than 120 cardinals eligible to elect the next pontiff.